The University of Central Florida is pleased to announce the 3rd Latin American / Latinx Film Festival to be held between September 22 – October 13, 2023.
Funding for this program was provided through a grant from Florida Humanities with funds from the National Endowment for the Humanities. Any views, findings, conclusions or recommendations expressed in this program do not necessarily represent those of Florida Humanities or the National Endowment for the Humanities.
In addition, the Spanish Film Club series was made possible with the support of Pradga, SPAIN Arts & Culture and the Secretary of State for Culture of Spain.
Sponsored by:
The College of Sciences, School of Politics, Security and International Affairs (SPSIA)
Film Festival Coordinators:
Annabelle Conroy, School of Politics, Security, and International Affairs (Annabelle.Conroy@ucf.edu)
Esmeralda Duarte, Department of Modern Languages and Literature (Esmeralda.Duarte@ucf.edu)
Jason Gregory, Department of English (Jason.Gregory@ucf.edu)
WHEN: September 22 – October 13, 2023
TIME & LOCATION: Times and locations vary by film, so please check each film for more details. Films will also be available on-demand on a virtual platform for one week after the in-person screening. Click the RSVP button to register and get access to the films.
COST: Admission is free
PARKING
Main Campus: UCF parking is by virtual permits ($5.00 before 5:30 PM and $3:00 after 5:30 PM). Daily permits may park in any “D” parking lots and garages. “D” parking areas are denoted with GREEN signs. Daily permits may also park in RED or BLUE parking spaces between the hours of 5:30 PM and 7:00 AM unless otherwise noted. Visit https://parking.ucf.edu/maps/ for a listing of parking areas.
For Parking Downtown Visit: Parking available at UCF Parramore Parking Garage and follow the festival flyers. Transportation Options & Parking | UCF Downtown
EVERYBODY LEAVES (TODOS SE VAN)
Sergio Cabrera / Colombia, Cuba / 2015 / 107 Min
Date: Friday, September 22, 2023
Time: 5:30 PM – Film Viewing
7:20 PM – Post-film discussion with director Sergio Cabrera and faculty panel (Dr. Karina Céspedes, Dr. Erica Kight, Holly McDonald, Anne Prucha, and Kacie Tartt)
Zoom Link
Location: UCF Main Campus / Nicholson COM 101
SYNOPSIS
In Spanish with English subtitles
With Yoima Valdés, Abel Rodríguez, Rachel Mojena, Scott Cleverdon, Indhira Serrano, Félix Antequera, Calbe Casas, Carlos Ever Fonseca.
Shot in Colombia (because the director didn’t get permission to film in Cuba) and featuring a cast consisting mostly of expatriate Cuban actors, Everybody Leaves is a celebration of freedom and a confrontation with the authoritarian Cuban regime of the 1980s, which led to one of the country’s worst economic crises. The film is based on the award-winning novel by Cuban writer Wendy Guerra.
Eight-year-old Nieve is the object of her parents’ custody battle. Her mother, Eva, is an artist who believes in the revolution and disagrees with censorship or authoritarianism. She is re-married to Dan, a Swede working on the construction of a nuclear plant. Nieve’s father Manuel is a playwright who sacrifices his artistic career to write government propaganda in a remote area of the country.
Through her diary entries, Nieve reveals intimate details of a turbulent family life while painting an authentic portrait of the social and political unrest in Cuba under the rule of Castro.
La Yuma
Florence Jaugey / Mexico, Nicaragua, Spain / 2011 / 91 Min
Date: Saturday, September 23, 2023
Time: 12:00 PM – Film Viewing
1:30 – 2:00 PM – Post-film discussion with director Florence Jaugey and panel (Dr. Yovanna Pineda and Dr. Maria Cristina Santana-Rogers).
Zoom Link
Location: UCF Downtown Campus, Communications and Media Building (CMB) 127
SYNOPSIS
Spanish with English subtitles
With Alma Blanco
Nicaragua’s first full-length feature in 20 years, La Yuma tells the story of a young woman who dreams of transcending her bleak life in the slums of Managua by becoming a boxer. Looking beyond the meager possibilities that seem available to her (and ignoring the advice of her gang-member friends), she finds solace and hope in her training and falls in love with a middle-class journalism student. With an extraordinary performance by Alma Blanco as Yuma, the strength, astuteness and determination of the main character reflect the feelings of a population that faces adversity and inequality. Jaugey’s film allows us the rare opportunity to get a glimpse of life in this Central American country where gender and class inequality are an everyday challenge.
Carajita
Silvina Schnicer, Ulises Porra / Argentina, Dominican Republic / 2021 / 89 Min
Date: Saturday, September 23, 2023
Time: 2:30 PM – Film Viewing
4:00 – 5:00 PM – Reception and post-film discussion Dominican Republic Consulate
Location: UCF Downtown Campus, Communications and Media Building (CMB) 127
SYNOPSIS
Spanish with English subtitles
With Cecile Van Welie, Magnolia Núñez, Adelanny Padilla
Featuring striking cinematography and outstanding performances, Carajita (which means annoying child) explores the tenuous relationship that exists between race, class, and family.
Sarah, the pampered daughter of a corrupt oligarch whose family recently relocated to Las Terrenas, thinks of her Black Dominican nanny, Yarisa, as “part of the family.” The two have a “mother-daughter-like” relationship that transcends their social standing. That illusion is put to the test when Yarisa’s spirited daughter Mallory goes missing, challenging Sarah’s naïve beliefs.
Boasting intuitive storytelling and confident direction, Carajita plays like a psychological thriller, deriving oppressive tension from unspoken inequalities and the impunity of privilege.
Los Lobos
Samuel Kishi Leopo / Mexico / 2019 / 95 Min
Date: Friday, September 29, 2023
Time: 5:30 PM – Film Viewing
7:20 PM – Post-film discussion with director Samuel Kishi Leopo and panel.
Zoom Link
Location: UCF Main Campus, VAB 132
SYNOPSIS
Spanish and Cantonese with English subtitles – Spanish language audio description available *
With Martha Reyes Arias, Maximiliano Nájar Márquez, Leonardo Nájar Márquez, Cici Lau, Johnson T. Lau
Following his success with We Are Mari Pepa, director Samuel Kishi Leopo approaches a more personal topic in the moving autobiographical film.
With touches of The Florida Project, Los Lobos follows brothers Max and Leo who, together with their mother Lucía, have just crossed the border from Mexico into the United States in search of a better life. But it is not easy for them to gain a foothold in their new home country. While waiting for Lucia to return from work, the kids build an imaginary universe with their drawings and think about mom’s promise of “Disneyland”, their land of dreams.
Told with unmatched authenticity, including powerful documentary footage mixed with fiction and playful animation (reminiscent of the Puerto Rican coming-of-age masterpiece We the Animals), Kishi Leopo’s film is unique and breathtaking. The film blossoms into a wondrous adventure story as the two brothers gather the courage to venture outside and explore the strange new world just outside their tiny apartment door.
Los Lobos is an absorbing coming-of-age story about migrant life through the prism of its most innocent figures.
Bacurau
Kleber Mendonça Filho, Juliano Dornelles / Brazil, France / 2019 / 131 Min
Date: Friday, October 6, 2023
Time: 5:30 PM – Film Viewing
7:20 PM – Post-film discussion with director Juliano Dornelles and panel (Dr. Sandra Sousa, and Holly McDonald).
Zoom Link
Location: UCF Main Campus / Nicholson COM 101
SYNOPSIS
English and Portuguese with English subtitles
With Sônia Braga, Udo Kier, Bárbara Colen, Thomas Aquino, Silvero Pereira, Thardelly Lima, Rubens Santos, Wilson Rabelo, Luciana Souza, Karine Teles, Antonio Saboia, Carlos Francisco.
ACADEMY AWARD® BRAZIL’S SUBMISSION FOR BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM
A few years from now…
Bacurau, a small village in the Brazilian sertão, mourns the loss of its matriarch, Carmelita, who lived to be 94. Days later, its inhabitants (among them Sônia Braga) notice that their village has literally vanished from online maps and a UFO-shaped drone is seen flying overhead. There are forces that want to expel them from their homes, and soon, in a genre-bending twist, a band of armed mercenaries led by Udo Kier arrive in town picking off the inhabitants one by one.
A fierce confrontation takes place when the townspeople turn the tables on the villainous outsiders, banding together by any means necessary to protect and maintain their remote community. The mercenaries just may have met their match in the fed-up, resourceful denizens of little Bacurau.
Award-winning and critically acclaimed, Bacurau is a box office sensation seen in Brazil by over a million people.
BEFORE THE ROOSTER CROWS
(ANTES QUE CANTE EL GALLO)
Arí Maniel Cruz / Puerto Rico / 2016 / 98 Min
Date: Saturday, October 7, 2023
Time: 12:00 PM – Film Viewing
1:40 – 2:15 PM – Post-film discussion with director Arí Maniel Cruz and panel.
Zoom Link
Location: UCF Downtown Campus, Communication and Media Building (CMB) 127
SYNOPSIS
Spanish with English Subtitles
With Miranda Purcell, Cordelia González, Kisha Tikina Burgos, José Eugenio Hernández, Yamil Collazo, Isadora Lee Cintrón, Iliana García, Israel Lugo.
Carmín is a teenager who lives in Barranquitas, a mountainous village in the center of Puerto Rico, with her tough and conservative grandmother. Carmín dreams of moving to the city, San Juan, with her mother but she just got remarried and is leaving for the US without her. Then, the arrival of her father after long years in prison eases Carmín’s profound sadness. The relationship with him, however, brings its own ambiguousness and complexities. Now the girl must learn to live between abandonment and carefulness; amidst desire and love to experience the deepest absence.
SAN JUAN, MAS ALLA DE LAS MURALLAS
(San Juan: Beyond the Walls)
Luis Amed Irizarry, Omar Silva / Puerto Rico / 2022 / 120 Min
Date: Saturday, October 7, 2023
Time: 2:00 PM – Film Viewing
4:00 – 5:00 PM – Post-film discussion (Fernando Rivera, Linda Nuñez)
Location: UCF Downtown Campus, Communication and Media Building (CMB) 127
SYNOPSIS
San Juan, más allá de las murallas (San Juan: Beyond the Walls) explores the 500-year history of the city of San Juan, from the move from Caparra to the different invasions during these centuries. It also looks at how different situations and people were key to what is now the capital of Puerto Rico. The documentary presents, through the recreation of key situations, archival material, and accounts of historians and researchers, decisive moments that influenced what is now the capital.
Giants Don’t Exist
(Los Gigantes no existen)
Chema Rodríguez / Guatemala / 2017 / 82 Min
Date: Friday, October `13, 2023
Time: 5:30 PM – Film Viewing
7:20 PM – Post-film discussion with director Chema Rodriguez and panel (Dr. Yovanna Pineda, Dr. Annabelle Conroy, and Holly McDonald).
Zoom Link
Location: UCF Main Campus / Nicholson COM 101
SYNOPSIS
Spanish and Mayan with English subtitles
With Luis Carlos Pineda, Jesús Tecú, Marta Tuyuc.
Guatemala in the 1980s, at the height of the ruthless civil war against the country’s indigenous communities. Andrés is 9 years old. He lives with Pedro González, one of the men who massacred all the women and children in his village. Andrés has survived, but he’s scared. Pedro’s wife, María, is also scared, scared to go out, scared to lose Andrés, whom she considers as «her new son»… even Pedro is scared, scared of himself and what the Army bounds him to do. Andrés would like to run away but he also wants to stay in his new family… The unexpected arrival of his biological sister will change everything.
Based on the true story of Guatemalan activist Jesús Tecú, Chema Rodríguez’s second feature is a harrowing and powerful drama about survival and hope. Teco was one of the few survivors of the Río Negro massacre in 1982, in which 177 women and children died.